, 1887-08-11
LIFE IN VENEZUELA.
The Climate - Luxurious Homes and
Princely Entertainments

fElnCeiy entertainments
There was something almost
in the air. We were only 5000 feet up,
and still the pulse grew quicker, breath
ing was more rapid, a little giddiness
came occasionally, and there was a curl
GUS sense of sound in the noontide still
ness of the scene:
Walking soon caused fatigue, and we
might have been not a little uneasy
about our apparent weakness, if our
good friend, Maj. Scott, had not assured
as that it was due to the change of ele-
walton; that the same thing happened to
him, and that it took only a few days to
grow accustomed. Beside that change,
we speedily found another. At La Guaira,
it had been uncomfortably warm, not to
say hot, but at, Caracas a double blanket
was always needed IN ones bed, and the
mercury was rarely up to 55 dogs. be-
fore z a. m. More than once a little
fire would have been thankfully well
coined. Native ladies wear white largely,
but foreigners rarely find the air warm
enough 10 justify a change from their
home attire.
Streets in town are wide for the
tropics, and well paved, though with
narrow sidewalks. AS a rule, houses are
built Of only one story, for fear of earth
quakes, such as have devastated the city
more than once in days gone by. Outer
walls are plain and somber, bearing no
relation to the luxuriant interiors.
Around a spacious patio or court, filled
with trees, flowers, ornamental fruits and
"a fountain or two, the house spreads its
~colonnades and opens wide its doors.
Forbidding enough to strangers, the
portal is no sooner passed than the scene
Is n of true home like comfort, of
every accessory that taste and money can
provide. They live like princes, these
~Caraquenos of the uppermost grade, and
their hospitality is as free as a Persian's.
They have carried the study of entertain
ing very far, and their dinner parties
would be difficult to excel in New York
or Paris. Such floral decorations as
adorn every table in Caracas could only
be obtained in New York at a first class
florists, and at great cost.
1t would be difficult to find in any
land more charming women than the
Caraquenas. Spanish descent has given
them a grace of figure and of. motion
that is all their own. Their pure noun
tain air and sans souci mode of life fur
nish a complexion that would be verit-
able velours de rose, if they would only
keep detestable powder away from it.
Their constant association with distin-
guished natives and diplomatic foreigners
who largely give o n to a capital, has
promoted a q~uickness of mind as well as
a courtly bearing that accords with their
fine figures. And they have, beside, a
p~oliteness that is wholly native. We
cum Il acquaintance of a month fast
growing into friends before the goodbys
came, and we are resolved to greet them
again some day not too far away
Among the leaders we were glad to see
w of our WI countrywomen, who, al
though adopted Venezuelans now, with
charming families growing up around
them, are still and always Americans,
with hearts and hands open to their wan
dering countrymen.
Amusements are many and varied.
Two theaters were in operation, one with
II wretched opera company from New
York-why people will go sc far to sell
80 little is hard to say; the other with q
japanese acrobatic troupe, who were
doing very well. OF late years President
Guzman has exercised good taste in pro
hlbiting those bloody scenes Of the bull
ring that have so long disgraced Madrid
and Havana; and the national entertain
ment, deprived of its cruelty, seems to
have lost attraction. Cock fighting re-
mains, however, and the excitable, ner-
vous crowds who go at every chance of
witnessing it, seem to enjoy it very
much.-Dr. w. F. Hutchinson in Ameri,
can Magazine.